The idea of “wearable computers” and electronic circuits built entirely out of textiles to distribute data and power and designed to perform functions such as touch sensing was first fully described in a disclosure called “Smart Fabric, or Washable Computing” by E. Rehmi Post and Maggie Orth of the MIT Media Laboratory available on the Internet at http:/www.media.mit.edu%7EREHMI/fabric/index.html and also on pp. 167-168 of the Digest of Papers of the First IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers, Oct. 13-14, 1997 held in Cambridge, Mass.
Prior to the applicant's invention described herein, electrical or electronic components were sometimes fastened to articles of clothing or placed in pouches or pockets. Individual wires between these components were then fastened to the outside of the clothing or disposed partially or wholly in seams and the like. In this way, a user could “wear” an audio playback device, a cellular telephone, or similar type device connected to headphones, a headset, or a speaker and/or microphone located on the collar of a jacket.
The problem with this design is that the wires are separate from the textile material of the clothing. As a result, the wires are unsightly and uncomfortable, do not wear well, can catch and tangle on objects, reduce mobility, add weight, are not washable, and are not resistant to corrosion. In general, such a design is not very robust.
Therefore, those skilled in the art sought to integrate the electronic circuits and data and power conductors within the textile of the articles of clothing themselves. See the MIT disclosure referred to above and incorporated herein by this reference. In the MIT reference, metallic yarn forms the weft of the fabric and, running in the other direction, plain silk thread forms the warp of the fabric. Surface mount light emitting diodes (LED's), crystal piezo transducers, and other surface mount components are then soldered directly onto the metallic yarn.
But, since the metallic yarn only runs in one direction, communications and interconnections between the electronic devices can only take place in that direction. Worse, the individual metallic yarns which do not electrically interconnect two components must be cut to provide electrical isolation for the individual metallic yarns which do electrically interconnect two components. This design thus raises serious design concerns, namely manufacturability, shielding, and electrical interference. Moreover, the fabric including the soldered-on electronic components is delicate, cannot be washed, has no stretch, and is uncomfortable to wear. Finally, if the fabric is folded back on itself, an electrical short will occur. Thus, special insulative coatings or substrates must be used which further render the fabric uncomfortable to wear.
Others have designed textile fabrics with conductive fibers for electrically interconnecting two electronic components. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,080,690 and 5,906,004 incorporated herein by this reference. Again, the main idea is that the whole garment is made of this special fabric. As such, a sensor can be electrically connected to a controller right on the garment. Still, routing of the data or power between the devices is limited without extensive formation of electrical junctions in the fabric—a very cumbersome manufacturing process. In addition, such garments are also uncomfortable and cannot withstand repeated wash cycles. See also U.S. Pat. No. 3,414,666 incorporated herein by this reference.
Commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 6,727,197, incorporated herein by this reference, discloses designs of textile materials with integrated data or power buses which are simple to manufacture, pleasing in appearance, comfortable, washable, which wear well, which do not add significant weight, which are corrosion resistant, which do not impede mobility, which exhibit high fatigue strengths, and which also properly meet or exceed the electrical interface and shielding requirements of the specific application, be it military or consumer-based.
Commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 7,559,902 and U.S. Publication No. 2007/0299325, both incorporated by reference herein, disclose an improved physiological monitoring garment with an elongated stretchable textile data/power bus disposed in an elastic fiber having one or more sensors connected to it.
One conventional system provides channels within the garment for the user to thread the headphone wires therethrough. Another conventional system permanently stitches a conventional headphone extension cable into a conventional T-shirt for connection to an audio playback device and headphone with a shortened cable. Routing a standard headphone or other cable set into channels within a garment requires subsequent removal of the headphone and wires for garment cleaning purposes. Conventional headphone cables or other wiring may not be stretchable which may impede stretching when integrated with high performance stretch fabrics, such as Lycra® based spandex, and the like. Moreover, manufacturing of a garment with permanent cable headphone wires may require a difficult and cumbersome stitching process.
Conventional “wearable” devices may lack the ability to support and safely stow various electronic devices in a way which enhances the performance of the device and improves the user interface with the device without sacrificing the performance of the garment being worn by the user.